Which Alexa am I talking to?


#1

1) Give a description of the problem
I have several Echo Dots in my house. When I speak a command to Alexa, how can I poll which Dot received the command?

2) What is the expected behavior?
I have a piston to turn down the speaker volume of my ceiling speakers. I want to be able to say “Alexa, turn down the speaker volume” and Alexa knows which room I am in and only turns down the volume on those speakers. Of course, I could write several similar pistons for each individual room and use that room name in my Alexa command. But I am hoping I can determine which Alexa I am talking to.

3) What is happening/not happening?
Currently Alexa turns down the volume on ALL speakers that are “ON”

4) Post a Green Snapshot of the pistonimage
(UPLOAD YOUR IMAGE HERE)

5) Attach any logs (From ST IDE and by turning logging level to Full)
(PASTE YOUR LOGS HERE BETWEEN THE MARKS THEN HIGHLIGHT ALL OF THE LOGS SND CLICK ON THE </> ICON TO FORMAT THEM)


#2

Ohh I love this one…
I hope there is way of doing this because I am in the same situation with echos…


#3

Without hacks, I don’t think this is possible (yet).

One hack that I use is a phrase to Alexa flips a Simulated Switch, and webCoRE monitors that switch. When that switch turns on, it runs thru a bunch of logic to try to determine where I am in the house, (presence, motion, time, etc) and then decides what actions to take.

Obviously, this method works best the fewer people that are in the house at the time, and the more ritualistic the inhabitants are.


Alternative hack:
If you dominantly use 3 Echos or less, you can use this method to narrow down which action you want to take place. Just keep in mind it adds about 12-15 seconds before the final action happens.


Yet another hack:
For my “Main” Alexa, I use this method which always fires off a specific device. (but will not adjust if you are in another room unless you tie in some of the other options above)


#4

Aren’t you close to the dots when saying the command? Or do you have two close to each other (or other alexa devices?


#5

If I am understanding @Pantheon correctly,
I think he wants one phrase to do different things depending on which Alexa he talks to…


#6

I’d like to know if this works because if I use Echo Speaks to deliver a follow-up question, she’ll direct it to the Echo I just spoke to.


#7

That is correct!


#8

It works…Big thanks to nathancu on the ST boards for the inspiration.


Wrong Echo responding